User:Coffeebreak12/sandbox/European Partnership for Democracy

The European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) is Brussels-based network of non-profit organisations working on supporting democracy worldwide. EPD is the most important European network of specialised organisations actively involved in democracy support in European Union (EU) partner countries. EPD is a multi-specialised European community of practitioners composed of eighteen European organisations from thirteen EU Member States present in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

The organisations composing EPD have a global presence and together they implemented over the past five years 200 democracy assistance projects around the world in roughly 180 countries for a total of 400 million in funding, mostly coming from the EU and/or EU Member States.

Mission
EPD was set up in 2008 with the “''purpose of making a contribution to, and reinforcing the impact of European endeavours in democracy assistance across the world. In doing so, the organisation is by nature a community of practice bringing together in an effective partnership the know-how and added value of European organisations implementing democracy support programmes ''.” (Article 3 of the EPD statutes)

Acting as a Community of Practice, EPD mobilises the network expertise, among others, through joint-programming, joint-advocacy, thematic and geographical working groups, and peer-to-peer ad hoc support to encourage interaction between them for the benefit of consolidating the impact of democracy support assistance programmes. That is, a group of organisations which work together because, by doing so, they can substantially improve the way they operate in the realm of democracy support. This notion does not only apply to EPD as a network and its institutional development, but also to all the actions and partnerships constructed under the EPD banner.

EPD seeks horizontal and vertical coverage of the key players within a democratic system and its ability to straddle the academic, policy and practitioner worlds. EPD has direct insight and hands-on experience of the various dimensions of democratic governance that must work in parallel in a functioning democracy. EPD bring together organisations with specialisations of working on:


 * different fields of democracy support: media development, civic tech, political parties, local authorities, elections, the rule of law, women participation, parliamentary support, multi-stakeholder policy dialogue, political and civil rights, civil society capacity building, ICT and civic and political education;


 * different levels of society: political leadership, elected representatives, state officials, civil society and grassroots community representatives.

Objectives
EPD is the first Community of Practice on democracy assistance operating at the EU level and a major advocate of democracy assistance at the European Union level, working directly with EU officials. Combining the experience and expertise of its member organisations and as a result of the lessons learned through the implementation of programmes in partner countries, the network has placed itself as an important source of knowledge in democratic and electoral assistance. As a consequence, EPD's Multi Annual Strategy for 2020–2023 aims at implementing, influencing and developing democracy support activities in the European context (at EU and EU member states levels).

Approaches
The members of EPD have come together to create joint approaches that make the most of the comparative advantage of the network. Due to the expertise from different sectors and the variety of experience in terms of partners, EPD is able to take a more holistic approach to democratic development. All the constituent elements of a political system are interlinked and it is therefore paramount for links to be made between specialists from different fields of democracy support. EPD has developed different joint approaches that are implemented around the world, either stand alone or within other projects.


 * INSPIRED (Integrated Support Programme for Inclusive Reform and Democratic Dialogue) is a method of policy dialogue that aims to promote transparency and accountability by guiding policy dialogue through three phases: collective assessment, consensus-building, and monitoring. In particular, it encourages international aid organisations and practitioners to make use of policy dialogue, by enhancing its inclusiveness and putting in place participatory mechanisms that make it more representative and legitimate.


 * SPACE (Strategic Partnership Approach to Creating a Conducive Environment) is a 3-step approach that has been developed to design programmes and projects that contribute to creating space for civil society, drawing on the unique mix of skills and expertise of 18 European organisations that support democracy in more than 100 countries worldwide. It starts out with a Democratic Institutions for a Conducive Environment (DICE) assessment aimed at creating a better understanding of how democratic institutions drive or hinder the development of civil society space in the country. DICE is tailored to the local context, as it uses tools for stakeholder mapping and Political Economy Analysis (PEA) to identify opportunities for influencing positive change.

Internal organisation
EPD's organisational structure is composed of a General Assembly composed of all members, a Board of Directors and a Secretariat.

EPD is managed by a Board of Directors composed of six members elected among the organisations composing EPD. The Board is composed of a president, currently Antonella Valmorbida, the Secretary General of the European Association for Local Democracy, a vice-president, currently Thijs Berman, the Executive Director of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy and a treasurer, currently Anthony Smith, The Chief Executive Officer of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy

The EPD secretariat is based in Brussels and is in charge of coordinating the 18 members and to further reinforce the cooperation between them.

Members

 * Article 19
 * The European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA)
 * Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD)
 * Club de Madrid (CdM)
 * Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy (DIPD)
 * Democracy Reporting International (DRI)
 * Demo Finland
 * EDGE Foundation
 * Elbarlament
 * Election-Watch.EU
 * ePaństwo Foundation
 * European Exchange
 * The Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC)
 * Oslo Center
 * Institute for Political Sciences of The Catholic University of Portugal
 * People in Need (PIN)
 * Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD)
 * French Agency for Media Cooperation (CFI)

Partners
EPD is a member of Human Rights and Democracy Network, CONCORD and SDG Watch Europe.